Four Season Shrub - Does high bush cranberry grow anywhere in Calgary? Looking for Kalyna!

Ah, Kalyna!  Kalyna is the Ukrainian name for the Highbush Cranberry.  It is a native shrub to most of Canada and has has recently become a more popular shrub in the Calgary area! Considered a four season shrub, it has attractive features to recommend it for each time of the year. 

The Viburnum trilobum is a shrub that the earliest settlers, among them Ukrainian immigrants, found here, and it reminded them instantly of the high bush cranberry kalyna from home! The plant is native to many places in Canada, especially in Alberta - and very attractive as a low maintenance ornamental shrub. It is a medium size shrub growing to 4 metres tall and 2 metres around.  In the late springtime some people call it a snowball bush because of its small bright white clusters of flowers, about 10-15 centimeters wide, that have large, showy sterile flowers, with smaller flowers inside where the pollen, and later the fruit is produced. In late summer or early fall the flowers turn into glowing red clusters of berries that can continue to be picked and preserved all winter long. Viburnum trilobum is especially beautiful in the fall, and depending on the variety the leaves may turn to scarlet red, purple, bronze or orange.
The high bush cranberry - kalyna enjoys moister areas, prefers sun but can tolerate shady areas. Because they are a cross-pollinating plant, planting two or more varieties toether will ensure pollination if you are planning for fruit.   Kalyna looks best in its natural state, but they can be easily pruned back and look very good when planted in groups or as a great hedge.  Picking the berries in late fall, just around the first frost will ensure the ripest, sweetest fruit.

Keeping the berries for a short time in the refrigerator, like other berries and soft fruits is fine, or they may be washed and stemmed, frozen, and used later for cooking or preserving.  Highbush cranberry - kalyna berries are best suited to cooking and processing because they have large, heart shaped seeds in the centre.   Flavourful jelly, juice, syrup, sauce, pie, liqueur and wine can be made from kalyna berries.  

Kalyna plays a huge role in traditional Ukrainian folklore too!

http://ukrainiancalgary.blogspot.ca/2012/08/kalyna-high-bush-cranberry.html

Chervona Kalyna - Veryovka  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_7BCsuL7w4&feature=related

Верба (Біля млина калина)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdQsBpWkk7w&feature=related

ОДНА КАЛИНА
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ62Q54sPbQ&feature=related

Кущ калини | Українські застольні пісні 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrQl2eTo_rU&feature=related

Oy u luzi chervona kalyna -- Etno hory 134 -- (ukraine music україна)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjjYhJ97Dow&feature=related

Kalyna - High Bush Cranberry

Lamont Travelogue by Darby 2

Our home has been graced with the company of special friends lately, forever friends really.  Travelling to Calgary from their homes far away, these are true friends, and we have deep abiding love and understanding for each other. Like the best friendships, between the laughter and tears, are layers and layers of common understandings.  Stuff we do, food we eat, art we display, our celebrations, our sorrows, songs we sing....

Metaphors and similes are encased in almost all Ukrainian songs.  One of the special botanical symbols is the kalyna – Viburnum-Caprifoliaceae L. (the high bush cranberry).  Kalyna is part of Ukraine’s wealth of life sustaining, rural, agricultural riches.  It has been known and used over millennia as part of ancient rites, rituals, magic and medicine.

In Ukrainian, nouns have gender, so the word “kalyna” is a feminine noun.  Kalyna grows in wet woods, along streams and wooded hillsides, and requires moist but well drained sites for best development. Kalyna blossoms are snow white, lace-cap flowers that form a ball-shape.  Ancestral Ukrainian folk songs of courtship, engagement and marriage anticipate the ripening of the kalyna berries, referring in hopeful terms to the whole concept of maidenhood, virginity, the nuptial bed, happy, fruitful wedded life.  The cycle of ritual songs and ritual embroideries celebrate the blood-red, the love, and life ahead.  Medicinally, the bark yields a powerful antispasmodic, a water soluble preparation containing a bitter compound called viburnine, which is used for the relief of menstrual and stomach cramps.  At the same time, however it is interesting that in the fall, the ripened berries weigh down the kalyna and the branches bend gracefully to support the tree - clearly imagery to do with birth, and the future, with all its complexity and sorrows. The fruit is best gathered when slightly under-ripe and sour.  If it is gathered after a heavy frost, the fruit is sweeter, and has a musty odor during cooking.  Wildlife waits until there have been several frost/thaw cycles before indulging in the dried fruit.   

In his amazing collection and analysis of Ukrainian traditional folk songs, Filiaret Kolessa refers to “parallelism”, where nature comes to represent all of life. Decoding becomes even more complex, the deeper one gets into literary symbolism. The Great Kobzar Taras Shevchenko was one, from among Ukraine's literary giants to have employed this imagery, and now ancestral images stand beside contemporary art works and seem to reflect not only individual love, but love for one’s people, for one’s country.  Many symbols are universally loved in Ukraine, probably none more than the kalyna.

Here are some favorite Kalyna songs to enjoy – consider the symbolism in the lyrics and think “to life!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kepx3vYsAD4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_O4wGjsn0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZzlKzI4HiU&feature=related